


Brotherly Loathing

by within_a_dream



Series: The Much Ado College AU [1]
Category: Much Ado About Nothing - Shakespeare
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-11 04:20:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5613745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/within_a_dream/pseuds/within_a_dream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Don Pedro has never been close with his half-brother, but when he returns home for the summer in the company of his friends, a new set of problems arises.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brotherly Loathing

**Author's Note:**

> A gift for my friend L (I told you I'd finish it! It's only...two years late...)

All he’d wanted was a shirt.

In retrospect, Don Pedro should have realized that his brother would find a way to screw things up for him. He always did, after all. Still, Don Pedro had thought that maybe this time things would be different. He was a college student now, and Don John was an adult. They could put their differences behind them, couldn’t they?

Don Pedro was certainly willing to try, but it seemed his brother hadn’t changed at all since they were kids. He’d spent the weeks since Pedro returned from school waking the rest of the house up by returning long past the time any reasonable person would be asleep, hogging the family room to play video games for hours on end, and stealing his clothes. His latest acquisition was Don Pedro’s white button-down shirt, which he’d been planning on wearing today. Getting angry about it was playing right into Don John’s hands, but he _needed_ that shirt today. He’d set today aside as the day he would finally make a move on Michael Cassio after months of crushing on him from afar, and he wanted to look his best. He’d had everything planned out, from what time to leave so he could catch Michael at the coffee shop to what socks he would wear, and the shirt was an integral part of the plan.

He could find another shirt, but that would be admitting defeat. So Don Pedro marched down the hall to his brother’s room, preparing for battle. He could feel the music before he heard it, making the floor beneath his feet vibrate. Of course, he heard it soon enough, some sort of rumbling, discordant techno with frankly vulgar lyrics.

“Inconsiderate, obnoxious, selfish, disrespectful—” He cut off his muttering as he knocked on the door (not that Don John would be able to hear him over his awful music). “Hey, Don John!” There was no answer. “John! Open up!” Still nothing. Knowing his brother, it was entirely possible the room was empty. Don Pedro sighed and flung the door open.

Well. Don John was definitely in his room. Unfortunately, he wasn’t alone. Even more unfortunately, the blaring music didn’t stop him from noticing Don Pedro’s presence. Don Pedro hadn’t think it was possible to smile with a dick in one’s mouth, but somehow Don John managed. When he stood up, the man with him (who Don Pedro was realizing looked sickeningly familiar) scrambled to cover himself with the nearest object to hand—which just so happened to be Don Pedro’s shirt.

“Thanks for knocking.”

Don Pedro wanted nothing more than to wipe that smirk off of his brother’s face. Instead, he snapped, “I did!” and tried not to look at Michael Cassio, who had shrunk back onto the bed, mumbling apologies.

“Try a bit louder next time.”

“Try locking your fucking door!” Don Pedro could see John leaning over to whisper something to Michael as he left, likely a derogatory comment about Pedro.

Just before he shut the door, Don John called out, sickeningly sweet, “What did you need?”

“Nothing,” Don Pedro muttered as he slammed the door shut.

~~~

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

Don Pedro had known that it would be difficult to get his friends to see his side of things, but he hadn’t anticipated outright rejection this quickly. “Could you at least try to take this seriously, Benedick?”

“All right, then.” Benedick was clearly holding back a smile, which Don Pedro chose to ignore. “What you’re saying is that your half-brother, as part of his nefarious plan to ruin your life, stole your shirt, using its absence to lure you into his bedroom so you would witness him sleeping with the very man you needed the shirt to seduce.”

“I wouldn’t say I _needed_ it, but I would have appreciated the confidence boost—would you stop laughing? Don John is tormenting me!”

Benedick managed to tamp down on his laughter long enough to ask, “Have you tried talking to him?”

“He’s the devil in human form. Talking would only make it worse.” Don Pedro looked to Claudio. “You’re on my side, right?”

Claudio smiled uncomfortably. “It couldn’t hurt to talk things out. I’m sure he didn’t mean to upset you.”

“Who’s the boy you’re ready to start a war over, anyway?”

“Michael Cassio,” Don Pedro sighed. Was it too much to ask for his friends to at least pretend to take him seriously?”

“The Michael Cassio from Macduff’s class?” The confused look on Claudio’s face signaled that he was about to say something stupid, and sure enough, he followed his initial question up with, “I didn’t know he was…into that.”

Benedick laughed. “With all due respect, Claudio, you didn’t know _I_ was into that even after I told you, twice.”

Claudio flushed red, and stammered out an indignant, “I didn’t want to assume!”

“I’m not sure what was left to assume after I told you I’d climb our math TA like a tree—”

“You mean Peter?” Don Pedro rolled his eyes. “You have horrible taste, Benedick. Not that that has any bearing on our discussion of how my brotheris ruining my life.”

“If it makes you feel better, things wouldn’t have worked out with Michael anyway.” Claudio sounded so uncomfortable with the conflict that Don Pedro almost felt bad for bringing it up. “He was transferring to Cypress University next semester, on a grant to work with Professor Othello studying early Italian military history.”

“Besides, he’s horrible in bed.” Benedick grinned. “Plenty more fish in the sea, right? Including fish who won’t accidentally bite your dick twice in one night.”

Don Pedro glared at him. “Can’t I date anyone who hasn’t slept with everyone I know?”

Claudio raised a hand. “I haven’t slept with Michael.”

“Was that a joke, dear Claudio?” Benedick grinned. “I didn’t know you had a sense of humor!”

He was clearly losing control of this conversation, Don Pedro realized. “Just promise me you won’t sleep with my brother.”

“Don John is not going to seduce us, I promise. And even if he tried, how much luck do you think he’d have? I could never sleep with someone who unironically listens to Skullfucker, and Claudio…” Benedick simply gestured at Claudio, and Don Pedro had to concede his point. He was just being paranoid. It was unlikely at best that Don John would figure out how to get in Benedick’s pants, and impossible that he’d find a way into Claudio’s. At least he could hold onto that, the fact that there was no way for his brother to fuck things up with these friends, like he’d done with so many friends before.

~~~

Don Pedro had tried to get along with Don John, he really had. He’d been excited to gain a brother when he was 7; at least, as excited as one can be by a brother gained when their father’s mistress showed up to dump him on them, sick of taking care of him. Sure, it had been hard to adjust to no longer being an only child, and the fights it had caused between his parents had been difficult, and it was hard not to feel a bit out-of-sorts at the introduction of this ill-behaved boy who now shared everything with him, even his name (although why two women would choose to name their children after his shiftless father was something Don Pedro had often wondered once he was old enough to realize just how much of a scumbag his dad actually was).

From the start, though, Don John hadn’t wanted to get along with him. It started with fights, and quickly moved on to less-obvious attacks like frogs in Don Pedro’s bed and messes that would be blamed on him instead of Don John. Then they’d grown up a bit, and Don John had started this game of seducing Don Pedro’s friends. It had started with his best friend Nate when they were fifteen—and as much as Nate swore nothing had to change, it was hard not to feel betrayed when you caught your best friend kissing the brother you’d spent countless hours complaining to him about. And of course, the minute Don Pedro expressed a romantic interest in someone, Don John was there to strategically make out with them in the closet that Don Pedro would be visiting that day to pick up art supplies. By his junior year, he’d resolved to only date girls, because while Don John still found a way to break them up, at least he didn’t do it by sticking his tongue in their mouths.

He’d thought that maybe things would be better now, but apparently that was giving his brother too much credit. Well. Don Pedro wasn’t going to let this ruin his summer vacation. The weather was beautiful, his friends were here, and so what if his plans to ask Michael out had fallen through? As Benedick had said, there were plenty of other fish in the sea.

~~~

A week later, Don John hadn’t managed to irreparably ruin anything, and Don Pedro had almost gotten to the point where he could look at Michael without blushing. Don John still played his music far too loudly, and left his dirty dishes and empty chip bags all through the house, and stole Don Pedro’s clothes, but Pedro was finding a lot of success ignoring him by staying out of the house as much as possible. He’d been worried about running out of places he could drag Benedick on Claudio, but thankfully Claudio (a city boy through and through, with no previous seaside exposure) and Benedick (a devoted people-watcher) never got sick of going to the beach. Until one afternoon, when Benedick emerged from the guest room late, disheveled, and not even wearing his swim trunks.

“I was just going to stay home,” he said when Don Pedro expressed his disappointment.

“Oh, no. Today is a beach day. The forecast predicts perfect swimming weather, and the hot lifeguard is on duty. Besides, you promised to show Claudio how to build a sand castle!”

“How will I ever overcome my deprived urban childhood if I don’t have you to teach me your ways?” Claudio nudged Benedick back towards the bedroom. “Come on! We don’t have to stay long.”

“All right, all right,” Benedick groaned as he slammed the door shut. “Just let me find my suit.”

When he emerged, he was wearing a white t-shirt—this had to be the first time this summer Benedick hadn’t taken any opportunity to get as naked as possible, as soon as possible.

“Sunburn,” he muttered when Don Pedro asked.

The sun was hot, the water was cool, and Claudio proved exceptionally talented at making sandcastles. Despite his great boasts, Benedick’s only skill was in destroying them (much to Claudio’s dismay).

“I worked hard on that!”

“Not hard enough. I was doing the beach a favor, getting rid of that eyesore.”

Grumbling, Claudio took his bucket and retreated to the ocean, and when Benedick wasn’t looking, dumped a full load of sandy water onto his head.

Benedick sputtered in outrage, and tackled Claudio to the ground. Don Pedro stepped back, getting well out of the way of the flying sand and swinging limbs, and watched as things progressed. To be honest, it was a miracle no one lost any body parts. When the cloud of sand around them settled, Claudio’s hair had fluffed out at least a few inches, and Benedick’s shirt had been flung away.

Claudio sucked in a breath at the sight of something (although Don Pedro couldn’t tell what.) “God, did I hurt you?”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Benedick murmured, scrambling for his shirt. He didn’t quite manage to get it back on before Don Pedro saw the lines down his back.

“Those are sex scratches. For fuck’s sake, Benedick, when have you even had time to sleep with—oh my God.” Don Pedro looked at his friend, praying his fear was wrong. “You didn’t sleep with my brother?”

This was the first time Don Pedro had seen Benedick blush. “You have to admit, he’s a babe.”

“He’s my brother! And the only reason he slept with you was to get back at me.”

“I gave him more reasons than that—”

Don Pedro clapped his hands over his ears. “New rule: _please_ don’t tell me about the sex you’re having with John.

It was a quiet drive home, Benedick’s few attempts at conversation stifled by Don Pedro’s icy glare. At least he knew Claudio wouldn’t betray him. They’d been friends since freshman orientation, and after years of queer student union meetings, parties, and game nights, he could say with confidence that Claudio was 100% grade-A heterosexual. Painfully so, at times, but at least it would keep him from Don John’s clutches.

~~~

Don Pedro spent most of the next few days in his room to avoid Don John’s smug smile whenever they made eye contact. At least there was no one left for him to take. Claudio seemed to entrench himself further into straightness every day, oblivious to attractive men at the beach and perpetually mooning over his crush, the girl he’d met in Intro to Bio last semester.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t make Don Pedro’s life hell in other ways. It was nearly three in the morning, and Don Pedro had been trying for hours to ignore the extremely loud and disturbingly enthusiastic noises coming from down the hall when he decided to put an end to it. He stomped into the hall and shouted, “Some of us have to work tomorrow, John!” Don Pedro would probably get the blame for keeping the entire house awake tomorrow, but he wasn’t going to let Don John’s actions stand unchallenged.

If anything, the noise grew louder after Don Pedro’s shout. He rapped on his brother’s door, then threw it open. If he couldn’t be bothered to use the lock, then he didn’t deserve privacy, Don Pedro thought. “It’s three in the goddamn morning, could you please shut—” He trailed off when he saw who was in bed with his brother.

“I’m sorry!” Claudio squeaked, pulling a quilt around himself.

Don Pedro glared at his brother. “You bastard!”


End file.
